Andy Murray will spend next week mixing a welcome spot of rest with more intense practice as he tries to get his game in top gear for two months that could go a long way to defining whether 2012 is a success or not.

For the second time in the space of a week, the Scot found himself out-hit. Last week, it was by Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters; yesterday it was Milos Raonic in the ATP event in Barcelona.

The Canadian is one of the rising stars on the tour and, on yesterday's form, it will not be long before he is regularly mixing it with Murray and the rest of the top players.

His monstrous serve – one delivery was tracked at 148mph on what was a cool morning – was backed up by powerful ground strokes as he sent Murray packing with a 6-4, 7-6 victory.

Murray will be smarting at losing to another big-hitter so soon after Berdych but he had warned his clay-court game takes a while to heat up and with three more matches under his belt, he is getting there slowly.

"Milos has always played well on hard courts; now he's a threat on all surfaces," Murray said. "He's got a huge serve so you must find ways to neutralise it. If you manage, you have options."

One poor game, at 3-3, cost him his own serve and Raonic, whose serve has drawn comparisons with Pete Sampras, held easily to take the first set.

Murray saved two break points to hold for 4-3 in the second but was broken in his next service game and though Raonic missed three smashes when trying to serve out for victory, he dominated the tie break to take it 7-3.

"It was important to play a few [more] matches on clay," Murray said. "I had some good tennis occasionally. But it's now important to be ready for the upcoming big events."

That will involve back-to-back Masters 1000 events; in Madrid a week on Monday – where the clay has been controversially dyed blue and then in Rome, with the French Open to follow at the end of next month.

It is a tough schedule and Murray admits he needs a few days' rest. "I've spent a lot of time away from home this year," he said. "I've been at home for about nine days and a lot of those days I'm [still] working.

"So I'm quite looking forward to having a little break and, hopefully, seeing some of my friends from when I practised in Spain [as a teenager].

"I've been playing pretty decent. I just need to brush up on one or two things and get on the practice courts."

It was Raonic's best win in terms of the ranking of his opponent and Rafael Nadal, cruising in the other half of the draw, may keep a close eye on him when he takes on Spaniard David Ferrer in the semi-finals today.

Nadal, who made mincemeat out of Janko Tipsarevic with a 6-2, 6-2 win yesterday, will take on Fernando Verdasco of Spain.